Coldstream Guards take LION'S LEAP to secure territory in Babaji

Babaji is an area of Helmand province hard-won by International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops during Operation PANCHAI PALANG (PANTHER'S CLAW) in the summer of 2009.

To keep the area secure, Number 1 Company Group from the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards engage in daily skirmishes with insurgents to the west of Babaji, but their dominance of the area is ensuring troops on the east side of the town have greater freedom of movement in which to begin the reconstruction and development effort, starting with a new school and road-build.

As part of the strategy Operation LION'S LEAP inserted troops by Chinook helicopter behind a key insurgent stronghold so that they could engage with local nationals in the area.

The villages patrolled have rarely been reached by ISAF troops in the past and British soldiers are keen to find out what the local Afghans need there, what their issues are, and how, as part of ISAF, the soldiers can help.

Major Toby Till, Officer Commanding Number One Company Group, explained:

"Certainly this area is fairly immature in terms of Helmand for how long ISAF troops have been down here, only really since PANTHER'S CLAW in July has anyone been down here in any density to have an effect. So one of the most important things is for us to understand the local population, find out who the individual compound owners are of each compound."

During Operation LION'S LEAP the troops found themselves under fire on occasion, and a team medic treated a young girl at an informal village shura. Overall the mission was a success and all the troops returned safely to their patrol base after two days on the ground.

Talking about coming under fire on the day of the operation, Lance Corporal Tom Huchinson said:

"The contact today was just a shoot and scoot, we were defending a roadway and a guy jumped out from behind a corner and fired a few rounds at us and jumped back in again, and out again and in again.

"We got a few rounds down at him, but we didn't hit him, we just chased him away basically. But we like to think it's not really representative of the people here, he's not really representing what they feel, he's just a foreign fighter probably; they're only here in groups of five or ten so it's not really indicative of what the feeling is of the people out here."

Guardsman Robert Smithson added:

"It's been very intense today, nerve-racking, but it's all good stuff. It's quite challenging, all the weight you carry on your back, it takes a lot of determination."

The Guards are working hard in a variety of ways to win round the local villagers, and learn what they can from them about how to improve the area.

Major Till continued:

"When we held the Eid celebrations, an important part of the Muslim calendar, we had over a hundred families in here who were receiving gifts from us and that's had positive effects in terms of the information they've given us."

The patrol also spent one night out in an abandoned compound:

"Well it is like being sent back to medieval times, really you don't have any electricity, there are no televisions to watch and you're cooking over an open fire in a mess tin. You are going to the toilet in bags and sleeping in a sleeping bag, so it's really back to basics. Salt of the earth stuff," said Lance Corporal Huchinson.

Sitting in the abandoned compound, describing their ambitions for the following twenty-four hours, he added:

"We'll do some soft knock operations where we just knock on a few doors, find out the people who are living here, what we can do for them, if there's anything we can do to support them. Find out what they think of ISAF, what they think of the security we're providing them, what we can do in the way of the building or construction.

"We're just trying to get the people on side, do the old hearts and minds campaign and generally just see if we can improve the lives of the people out here in any way we can."

Reflecting later he said:

"We've made a difference, we've reached out to different areas the people before us weren't able to reach. So we are influencing this area in a positive way."

Lance Sergeant Mathew Wallis, who led the patrol, said:

"The end state of the operation actually on the ground was that we held a shura which is a big meeting with all the local heads, all the local elders, all the people that kind of run the areas up there. A lot of positive answers came out of it, again security was brought up a lot of the time."

The work to secure the area continues and Number 1 Company step out of Patrol Base Four every day to keep the Taliban on their toes and increase the ISAF footprint of security.

They are conducting enemy disruption operations and they accept that they will be in conflict from insurgents on a regular basis but are confident that their work, talking regularly to the local population, is vital for the long term security and development of the region.